


Second Thoughts

by Bianca MarOu (glazedmacguffin)



Category: Men in Black (Animated Series), Men in Black (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-28
Updated: 2011-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-26 15:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/284875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glazedmacguffin/pseuds/Bianca%20MarOu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent K realizes that being an agent isn't for everyone, no matter how much it upsets him.  Short prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt off a picture of a barcode tattoo on an arm. Refers to Alpha and cartoon canon more than it does to movie canon, but it can still be applied.

Agent K sat down in front of Bernstein, giving him a sympathetic look. He rubbed his hands together. Goddammit, this was going to be hard. He fucking hated it. And what was worse, the other guy knew it was coming.

Chicago born Louis Emil Bernstein was a nice guy. He was on the older side of things, graying at the temples, wrinkled in all of the right parts of his face and not sagging in the others. For a young agent like Kay seeing that the MiB was willing to bring in someone his age was really a hopeful step forward for an extended career. After his father's post WWII life as a drill sergeant, his decline in activity and enthusiasm for fighting on, Kay wanted to know that there were still guys out there that wouldn't slow down and places for them to work that wouldn't assume that over the hill meant through the woods. He was already starting to look up to the guy, and the hurt was evident on his face.

"Don't look so depressed," his new friend said, smiling warmly. He just sounded so damn friendly on top of everything else about him. Friendly and commanding at the same time, and that was a bitch to pull off. "I had a chance to see this. I had a chance to see.... that-" he motioned to the alien intake across the room.

"Yeah," Kay muttered sadly, wringing his hands together in a way that made his knuckles white and held the focus of his attention.

"No, you stop that." The elder man said, pointing at him authoritatively. "You have an important job here. And me? I'm in my forties. No big loss."

"Bullshit. I saw how you handled that obstacle course." Kay was, as ever, defiant.

"Of course you did, and you better learn from it." He wagged that already pointed finger for the most emphasis he could muster. "This whole planet, you need to protect it. To protect us. To make sure we don't become something terrible, or that something terrible doesn't get bright ideas about this place."

"I know, I know." But it _hurt_. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, right between his eyes. If he weren't the man he was, he'd be on the verge of tearing up. Very few things could push his eyes to near glistening, and this managed to at least give him a tickle he had to grunt out of his throat. "I'd like your help, though. I'd like to have you around."

Maybe it was because he was missing his father. He was missing his family. Maybe he was still angry over the integrity he'd found in his last mentor, that he was spontaneously stripped of. But he knew as soon as the damned words slipped out of his mouth that he'd regret them. Because he'd be reminded of the reason he couldn't. The same reason his father's marriage was ruined, because of the things he'd seen while overseas and the way it had destroyed his view of the world.

Things like Bernstein had lived through.

"I have to keep it," he said, still warmly. In contradiction to everything that should be associated with it. "You guys, you can't have any marks. I survived a lot over there. Giving this up would feel too much like the reason they gave it to me in the first place."

Kay rubbed under his fingers over his mouth, trapping in more words that wanted to come out. Arguments about the willingness and purpose involved. But he actually had too much respect for the guy to want to change his mind. He knew there was something there he'd never be able to understand but needed to still acknowledge. Even in the short time of knowing him and testing him, he wanted to know this son of a bitch would be out there in the actual world and making it a better place.

He huffed a breath out his nose and sat up straight. "Well then," he slapped his hands to his knees. "Let's get going. I know a good Chinese restaurant. It's across from a pawn shop. I think you'll like it." If he was going to have to erase this man's memory, he was going to make sure he did so with him feeling good about himself and with a full stomach.


End file.
